The Battle of Jutland

The Battle of Jutland is considered to
be the only major naval battle of World War One. Jutland
witnessed the British Navy losing more men and ships but the verdict of the Battle
of Jutland was that the German Navy lost and was never in a position again to
put to sea during the war. Admiral
John Jellicoe's tactics were criticised by some, but after the battle the
British Navy remained a powerful fighting force whereas the German High Seas
fleet was not.

Why was the battle fought? It was
generally believed that Britain had naval supremacy not only in Europe but also
throughout the world. One of the major clashes involving Germany and Britain
before the outbreak of war in August 1914, was what was described as the naval
race between the two nations. The British public had grown to believe that
Britain could not be challenged when its navy was concerned. The song “Rule
Britannia” was very much in this mould as the song starts “Rule Britannia,
Britannia rules the waves, Britain never, never, never shall be slaves.” A
strong British navy was expected by the public, as was the inevitable naval
victory.

The 1912 Naval review
at Spithead
from a contemporary postcard

At the start of the war, Britain was
involved in two minor naval clashes – Heligoland and Dogger Bank. A full-scale
naval clash between Germany and Britain had not occurred. Germany’s fleet was
smaller than Britain’s but both fleets benefited from the development in 1906
of the Dreadnought. Overnight, all warships were
redundant in terms of what they could do relative to the Dreadnought. The new
design was quickly latched onto by the Germans and a naval race began.

HMS Belleraphon - a
dreadnought

Two fleets with such power could inflict
great damage on the other. One argument that has been put forward for the lack
of naval activity at the start of the war is that both fleets basically avoided
a major clash for fear that it would be decisive and leave their respective
nation's vulnerable to attack.

The British Navy in the North Sea was
based in Rosyth, Cromarty and Scapa Flow. Here it could protect the central and
northern areas of the North Sea and stop the German High Seas Fleet from getting
into the Atlantic where it could cause huge problems for Britain’s merchant
fleet. The British believed that the Germans would not try to rush the English
Channel and face the might of the British Navy based in Portsmouth and Plymouth.
Therefore, it was reckoned that the German Navy could only operate in the North
Sea.

The British had by 1916 put up an
effective blockade of Germany. Germany’s northern coastline was very small and
any blockade was easy to enforce. Up to 1916, the German High Seas Fleet had
been commanded by Admiral von Poul. He was considered to be too passive in his
approach to what the German Navy could do. In 1916, von Poul was replaced by the
far more aggressive Admiral Reinhardt von Scheer. He decided that the blockade
had gone too far and was causing too much damage to Germany.

Scheer wanted to lure out of their
respective naval bases parts of the British fleet and using a combination of
submarines and surface boats attack and destroy them. On the night of the 24th
and 25th of April 1916, the German Navy attacked the coastal towns of
Lowestoft and Yarmouth. The idea was that the British fleet would respond to
this.

In May, Scheer ordered Admiral von
Hipper to sea with 40 ships to move along the Danish coast. The news of this
movement reached Admiral Jellicoe in
Rosyth. He saw this movement of such a large force as a provocative move and
ordered the Grand Fleet to put to sea. The Battle of Jutland started on May 31st
1916.

Finding where the enemy’s fleet was
proved a reasonably difficult task. Spotter reconnaissance planes were far too
unreliable to cover the distance required over the North Sea. Therefore, fast
cruisers were sent out by both fleets to discover where the other was. When both
did find the other there was a brief exchange of fire but both had done their
task – hunting down the enemy.

Now that the British had found the
Germans, Jellicoe was joined by the fleet based at Scapa Flow led by Sir David
Beatty. Fifty-two ships joined the Grand Fleet. Jellicoe and Beatty faced a
fleet of forty German ships led by Admiral Hipper. They opened fire at one
another at a distance of about ten miles. Though they were a smaller force, the
initial advantage lay with the Germans who were helped with their visibility by
the lay of the sun.

Just after 16.00, the British battle
cruiser “Indefatigable” was destroyed by the Germans. One thousand men lost
their lives when a magazine exploded. Nearly thirty minutes later, “Queen
Mary” was sunk in just ninety seconds.

The position of the British became more
difficult when Hipper was joined by Scheer’s High Seas Fleet. Jellicoe’s
force was about fifteen miles from Beatty’s force when the actual battle
started. As the two British fleets converged, the British suffered a third major
loss when the “Invincible” was sunk shortly after 18.30.

When the two fleets did join, they
represented an awesome force and Hipper ordered the German fleet to sail north.
Jellicoe interpreted this move as an attempt to lure the British fleet into
either a submarine trap or a German mine field – or both. Therefore, he did
not follow the retiring German fleet. Jellicoe decided to sail his fleet south
to cut off the Germans when they tried to sail for home.

Both fleets clashed again as the Germans
sailed for port. The German ship “Lutzow” was sunk. “Seydlitz” and
“Derfflinger” were badly damaged.

The Germans claimed that Jutland was a
victory for them as they had sunk more capital ships than the British. Jellicoe
claimed that the victory belonged to the British as his fleet was still a sea
worthy entity whereas the German High Seas fleet was not. The British did lose
more ships (14 ships and over 6,000 lives) than the Germans (9 ships and over
2,500 casualties). But the German fleet was never again to be in a position to
put to sea and challenge the British Navy in the North Sea.